Will the Superbowl Raise Housing Prices?

Will the Superbowl Raise Housing Prices?

February 1, 2019

“Inglewood: Future home of the Rams and Chargers,” proclaims a current MLS listing for a 3BR/2BA 1,326 sq.ft. home at the northern edge of the city, just a few miles from the colossal steel husk that will eventually become the world’s most expensive sports arena. The listing includes only 2 photos: An exterior shot of the fixer, and a flashy nighttime rendering of the future stadium—as if buying a house in Inglewood were equivalent to snagging a seat on the 45-yard line. And while the stadium is causing a real estate bubble in surrounding neighborhoods, could a Rams win this weekend drive interest and prices even higher?

The town’s sellers are hoping to cash-in on proximity to the stadium; much the same way loft sellers in DTLA did when the Staples Center was in its infancy. The real estate website Curbed L.A. recently surveyed more than 80 online listings in Inglewood, where residents are predicting that the arrival of pro teams will electrify their community’s business districts and housing market. More than half of the listings mentioned the stadium or the sprawling complexes of apartments, restaurants, and retail businesses set to surround the complex.

Current home values in Inglewood are zooming as fast as Todd Gurley. Between January 2016—when the NFL agreed to let the Rams and Chargers relocate to Inglewood—and end of 2018, the median price of homes in the city jumped 37.3% to $542,100, according to Zillow. That’s less than L.A. County’s median of around $600K, but that’s almost double the rate of the county, where prices climbed 18.7% over the same time period. Inglewood home prices also went up in the 2 years leading up to 2016, but at a rate closer to that of the rest of the county: 17%, compared to a little under 15% countywide.